NIAID R56-Bridge Award

Purpose

To provide one year of funding for investigators whose high-priority applications score outside the payline, with the expectation that they will resubmit their applications.

Procedure

NIAID staff members nominate programmatically important new or renewal R01 applications that missed the payline for a High-Priority, Short-Term Project Award (R56), called an R56-Bridge award. Investigators cannot apply for these awards.

In choosing applications, we consider the relevance of the project to our mission in addition to its scientific merit. We also give some special consideration to new investigators.

The following awards are ineligible for an R56-Bridge:

• Grant mechanisms other than the R01.
• Projects that have previously received an R56 or R21.
• Unscored applications.
• New clinical trials and epidemiological studies.
• End-of-year applications that need an institutional assurance of protection for human subjects or animal welfare assurance.
• Foreign grants. Domestic grants with foreign components are also ineligible unless they can stand on their own without the foreign component.

R56-Bridge awards always receive one year of funding. However, if we fund a resubmitted R01, the R56-Bridge award ends, and we deduct its remaining funds from the R01.

Most often, we fund R56-Bridge awards at study section-recommended dollars and follow our financial management plan at the time of award. See Paylines and Budget for details.

As with any grant, we may reduce an R56-Bridge award from a study section-recommended level if recommended by the program officer.

Every year, divisions report their R56-Bridge awards to Council.

NIH has a separate program, called NIH Director’s Bridge Awards, that it announces in the NIH Guide.

Applicants and PIs

• Do the following if we recommend you for an R56-Bridge award that is reduced by at least two modules or 25 percent from the study section-recommended level:
  • Inform your program officer how this level would change the scope of your application and how you will use the funds.
  • Send revised Specific Aims, a timeline, and a budget to your program officer for review and approval. We must approve those documents before we can make an award.
• After you receive an R56-Bridge award, resubmit an R01 using data resulting from the R56 funding.
• The R56 counts as other support if the R01 is fundable.
• You may carry over funds from the R56 to the R01.

Program Officers

• Recommend applicants and grantees for R56-Bridge funding using the GrayZone module under the CAAP tab in the NIAID Planning and Reporting System (NPARS).
  • Your division director ranks nominees in the R56-Bridge Awards module under the CAAP tab in NPARS, limiting the number of awards to funds available.
  • For details, see the CAAP and NPARS SOP.
• Bridge justifications:
  • PI may obtain new data to support the feasibility of the research.
  • PI may delete objectives or revise approaches to research.
  • Read the Council Guidance for more information.
• Present R56-Bridge candidates for discussion at the NIAID pre-Council meeting.
• For grants to be funded at less than the study section-recommended level, do the following:
  • Email your scientific justification to the grants management specialist for the electronic grant file. If it is acceptable, the specialist uses your email as the basis for the award.
  • Email the PI's revised Specific Aims, timeline, and budget and your approval to grants management.
• To fund a normally ineligible application as an R56-Bridge, initiate a deviation. The Grants Management Program director and the DEA director must approve the deviation through the formal process. See the Deviations in Grant Policies SOP.

Grants Management Staff

• When an R56-Bridge award is released for funding, create an R56 record in IMPAC.
• Email a PDF of the application to the program officer, and ask him or her to review the application and complete the R56 program officer checklist.
• Before funding, inform the PI of the documentation he or she needs to submit to the program officer if budget cuts are greater than two modules or 25 percent.
• Apply the renewal cap of 20 percent more than the direct cost of the last noncompeting grant year plus equipment and alterations and renovations.
• Award facilities and administrative costs at the current F&A rate.

Read GMP's Bridge Awards (R56) SOP and Changing a Bridge Award (R56) to an R01 for more information.

Contacts

Applicants with questions should Contact Staff for Help.

Staff Only Contact

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

Deviations in Grant Policies SOP

End-of-Year Funding Timelines and Processes SOP

FY 2008 NIH Director's Bridge Awards, January 31, 2008, NIH Guide

NIAID Funding Policy and Process SOP

NIH Office of Extramural Research -- High Priority, Short-Term Project Award (R56) Web site

Release of Funds for Solicited, Opportunity Pool, and Career Awards SOP